Rasmussen: The Team is in Taiwan, for the Tour of Taiwan, we do not bring the strongest squad, Sondre Holst Enger is here but it is his first ride of the season, so he is a bit out of form.
18/3 Kaohsiung City: 143.1 km
Today’s stage is a circuit around Dapeng Bay, we don’t belive a break will hold on a short first stage, so we stay in the peloton, at hope for a good mass sprint.
Kaohsiung City:
Roster:
Marc Hester
Angelo Furlan
Anton Grøn
Lasse Christiansen
Martin Pedersen
Sebastian Balck
Simon Bigum
Sondre Holst Enger
The Morning break was Hugh Carthy (Rapha Condor) Stan Godrie (Rabobank DT) Julian Hellmann (Quantec)
The Peloton was slow, so we decided to lead the chase, not to risk a break away win.
Team IG-Sigma Sport’s top sprinter Scott Thwaites crash, they send 5 riders back to help, but they lost 6 minutes anyway.
The break was reeled in and we set up a train, and got close to the front, did not get a perfect sprint Holst Enger lost contact with Hester last moment, but it turned out ok.
We got Marc Hester (8) and Sondre Holst Enger (9), The stage winner was Danilo Wyss (IAM Cycling)
Stage:
1
Danilo Wyss
IAM Cycling
2h58'28
2
Mattia Gavazzi
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
3
Dominique Rollin
Bontrager Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
s.t.
5
Sheldon Deeny
Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies
s.t.
6
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
s.t.
7
Rick Zabel
Rabobank Development Team
s.t.
8
Marc Hester
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
9
Sondre Holst Enger
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
10
Jeffry Romero
Colombia
s.t.
GC:
1
Danilo Wyss
IAM Cycling
2h58'08
2
Stan Godrie
Rabobank Development Team
+ 4
3
Mattia Gavazzi
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
+ 8
4
Hugh Carthy
Rapha Condor - JLT
+ 10
5
Julian Hellmann
Team Quantec - Indeland
s.t.
6
Dominique Rollin
Bontrager Cycling Team
+ 12
7
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
+ 20
8
Sheldon Deeny
Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies
s.t.
9
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
s.t.
10
Rick Zabel
Rabobank Development Team
s.t.
Points:
1
Danilo Wyss
IAM Cycling
25
25
2
Mattia Gavazzi
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
20
20
3
Stan Godrie
Rabobank Development Team
16
16
Team : Christina Watches - Onfone
Young: Kenneth Vanbilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise)
Edited by Tamijo on 11-10-2015 11:03
The peloton have moved 50 km north from Kaohsiung City to Tainan, both huge city’s with more than a million people.
The stage start in the city center near the Taijiang National Park, form Lin Mo-Niang Memorial Park, moves north to Shanhua District,then west to Beimen District, and then back east to Baihe District, for at climb up to the finish near CingYa Hot Spring.
Pre-race strategy: Now we got a more hilly stage, with an uphill finish, so today we may try to attack. Either with Furlan, Balck or Pedersen.
Profile:
Furlan and Balck, tries to get into a series of attacks, but they are all caught, in the end it is Sebastian Balck who gets away in a group of 5.
They get up to a little more than 3 minutes, but they get reeled in about 8 km from the finish. Sebastian Balck about to be swallowed by the bunch:
Now it up to Martin Pedersen & Sondre Holst Enger, Martin hasn’t got the power in his legs today, to stay close to the front. Sondre Holst Enger on the other hand, moves to 2nd position and start his sprint from there.
The bad form of Holst Enger shows in the sprint, he loses 11 positions on the last km, gets in at 13. The winner was Marcel Aregger (IAM Cycling)
Missed the exported results, so here a reduced overview :
The peloton have moved 134 km north to Changhua County, on the south side of Dadu River near Taichung City.
The route starts with a climb to Fen Yuan, then back to Changhua city, from there down along the coast to Fangyuan Township, east to Tianzhong Township, and then back up to a cobblestone uphill finish in Changhua city, close to where it began.
Baguashan Budda, close to the finish line:
Pre-race strategy: Another hilly stage, with an uphill finish, so we will try to attack, this time with stronger riders, Holst Enger or Martin Pedersen.
Profile:
A break of 7 riders gets established before the climb, amongst them Martin Pedersen and a strong Coen Vermeltfoort (De Rijke – Shanks), they get a gab of almost 6 minutes. Pedersen takes the only mountain sprint (cat.2)
The peloton speeds up, but the break works well, especially Vermeltfoort and Pedersen gives a lot to the break. They still got almost a minute with just 6 km to go. Then Coen Vermeltfoort decides to attack and Petersen follows, leaving the other behind.
Petersen leads the way on the uphill cobblestone section, it seems clear now, that it is between the two of them.
When Petersen starts the sprint, Vermeltfoort is done he can’t follow, Petersen takes the stage and the GC too. Sondre Holst Enger is 13 in the GC 1'25 behind.
Rasmussen: After some bad days for the team, Petersen places himself in the center of attention, very well executed race by him.
The Caravan has moved just 20 km north to Taichung City. The stage starts in Xitun District not far from Tunghai Universety, west out to Wuqi District by the harbor, from there north crossing the Dajia River up to Waipu District, and south-east to the cat 1 climb in the mountains of Xinshe District, from here back to Xitun for the final climb up to Taichung Metropolitan Park.
Taichung Metropolitan Park:
Pre-race strategy: With no climber in the squad, we will lose today; but we will try to help Martin with all we have got to limit the damage.
Profile:
The morning break was Chun Feng (Champion System) Sebastian Salas (Optum) Matthias Bertling (Quantec – Indeland) and Marcin Sapa (CCC Polsat – Polkowice) they got a little more than 4 minutes, when the cat 1 started.
Today’s race was hard on many riders, all day big groups was dropped of the peloton, some came back, new rider was dropped, in the end riders was scattered all over the place, more than 60 riders lost more than 10 minutes.
Chun Feng attacked from the front group with about 20 km left, Sebastian Salas tried to follow, the others in the break resigned, Feng had a nice gap to Salas at the 10 km mark.
In the front of the Peloton, Francisco Mancebo (5-Hour Energy), Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia), and a few other riders also attack at the second last climb, making a small gap to the peloton. Julian Arredondo (Team Nippo - De Rosa) riders out in front, attacks and easily catch up.
Arredondo:
Arredondo has supreme legs today and soon attacks again, this time only Pantano can counter, they are now close to Chun Feng, Arredondo attacks again at 3 km, this time no one can follow. Arredondo takes the win.
Martin Pedersen and Sondre Holst Enger rides with the peloton to the last climb, but they are not able to follow the better climber up to the finish, they get in: Martin +4,09 (23), Sondre +5’07 (28)
Arredondo and Pantano closing in on Feng at the 5 km mark.:
Stage:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
3h03'27
2
Jarlinson Pantano
4-72 Colombia
+ 43
3
Chun Feng
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 1'04
4
Esteban Chaves
Colombia
+ 1'14
5
Francisco Mancebo
5-Hour Energy
+ 1'37
6
Emanuele Sella
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
+ 1'51
7
Philip Deignan
An Post - Chainreaction
+ 1'56
8
Christopher Butler
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 2'27
9
Paolo Tiralongo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
s.t.
10
Oliver Zaugg
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 2'31
GC:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
12h05'06
2
Jarlinson Pantano
4-72 Colombia
+ 1'30
3
Esteban Chaves
Colombia
+ 1'35
4
Chun Feng
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 2'10
5
Emanuele Sella
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
+ 2'20
6
Philip Deignan
An Post - Chainreaction
+ 2'38
7
Francisco Mancebo
5-Hour Energy
+ 2'41
8
Oliver Zaugg
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 3'07
9
Martin Pedersen
Christina Watches - Onfone
+ 3'08
10
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
+ 3'22
Points:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
25
39
2
Martin Pedersen
Christina Watches - Onfone
0
29
3
Danilo Wyss
IAM Cycling
0
27
Mountain:
1
Martin Pedersen
Christina Watches - Onfone
0
16
2
Sebastian Salas
Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies
16
16
3
Chun Feng
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
14
14
Team: Champion System Pro Cycling Team
Young:
Esteban Chaves (Colombia)
Edited by Tamijo on 13-10-2015 06:44
sutty68: Ok, i will (hopefully) remember that from now on, especially now, where "we" will be riding more that one tour at the same time ( eq. I will report stage 1 of Critérium International today,while we are still only in the middle of the Taiwan tour)
Tamijo wrote:
sutty68: Ok, i will (hopefully) remember that from now on, especially now, where "we" will be riding more that one tour at the same time ( eq. I will report stage 1 of Critérium International today,while we are still only in the middle of the Taiwan tour)
Christina: While Rasmussen is still in Taiwan, with another squad, I’m here in Porto-Vecchio, Corsica with the “A” team. The city was originally founded by the romans, abandoned and refunded in 1539 by the Genoese.
We are here for the Critérium International, one of the few traditional high profile races of our season, it is important that we get something from this race, hopefully a stage win but as always any good result will do.
The stage starts in the city right outside Hôtel Aiglon Bylitis, from there south for the climb to Piccovaggia, from there north to Sainte-Lucie, and then back to the finish line in the westen part of Porto-Vecchio.
Porto-Vecchio:
Pre-race strategy: We expect a mass sprint this is a very short stage, but we would also like to get in a break away, looking for points at the mountain sprint.
Profile:
Roster:
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Kenny Elissonde
Lasse Bøchman
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay
Philip Nielsen
Stefan Schumacher
Yves Lampaert
Stefan Schumacher places himself in a position near the front, and counters the first possible attack. The group of 5 gets away easily just 8-10 km before the mountain sprint. Schumacher claims the points without any real competition. He is by far the stronger rider in this break.
The same for the point sprint, Schumacher outsprint the group without even a drop of sweat, but the Peloton is full of hungry sprinters and the break is kept in a short strings, it is brought back in due time for a mass sprint.
Schumacher at the points sprint:
We set up a train of: Yves Lampaert- Philip Nielsen- Francisco José Pacheco, they are in a good position when the sprint starts:
Francisco José Pacheco crosses the line 2nd, right behind Yauheni Hutarovich (AG2R) in a very exciting close finish.
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay for some obscure reason loses 2’11, I don’t know if he was just tried or of the bike for a pee.
Christina: Perfect !
Stage:
1
Yauheni Hutarovich
AG2R La Mondiale
1h30'21
2
Francisco José Pacheco
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
3
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
4
Rubén Pérez
Liberty Seguros - Würth
s.t.
5
Benjamin Giraud
La Pomme Marseille
s.t.
6
Yannick Martinez
La Pomme Marseille
s.t.
7
Jonathan Castroviejo
Movistar Team
s.t.
8
Chris Froome
Movistar Team
s.t.
9
Aurélien Passeron
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
s.t.
10
Stéphane Poulhiès
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
GC:
1
Yauheni Hutarovich
AG2R La Mondiale
1h30'01
2
Francisco José Pacheco
Christina Watches - Onfone
+ 8
3
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 12
4
Stefan Schumacher
Christina Watches - Onfone
+ 14
5
Rubén Pérez
Liberty Seguros - Würth
+ 20
6
Benjamin Giraud
La Pomme Marseille
s.t.
7
Yannick Martinez
La Pomme Marseille
s.t.
8
Jonathan Castroviejo
Movistar Team
s.t.
9
Chris Froome
Movistar Team
s.t.
10
Aurélien Passeron
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
s.t.
Points:
1
Yauheni Hutarovich
AG2R La Mondiale
25
2
Francisco José Pacheco
Christina Watches - Onfone
20
3
Manuel Belletti
AG2R La Mondiale
16
Mountain:
1
Stefan Schumacher
Christina Watches - Onfone
6
2
Fabricio Ferrari
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
4
3
Jay Thomson
MTN - Qhubeka
2
Team: AG2R La Mondiale
Young: Evgeniy Kovalev (RusVelo)
Edited by Tamijo on 13-10-2015 17:22
, lets hope he can climb the GC before the end 
